Finland’s first open knowledge meetup

Helsinki, 2012

Prior to curating the Open Knowledge Festival in Helsinki, I had the unique honour of planning Helsinki’s first-ever open knowledge meetup with a global team of leaders, who later organised the festival itself with me. With over 80 Finns in attendance and a lot of positive energy, the event was followed by similarly-minded events across Finland, building a community of openness that stays strong even today. It felt like a real privilege to be involved in those first moments.

From a post I wrote for the Pardon my Finnish blog:“Last month in Helsinki, four Finns, a Russian and a Canadian huddled anxiously around a desk at Aalto University’s School of Economics with a fleet of glowing laptops, finishing last-minute prep for the first Open Knowledge Finland meetup and hoping a few brave souls would show up. A few hours, 80 participants and many intriguing discussions later, I stopped in the midst of a conversation to reflect upon the inspiring Finns around me - and I realised I had witnessed the start of a movement.